


And His Mama Cries

by Goldpeaches



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Domestic Violence, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 11:26:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2579810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldpeaches/pseuds/Goldpeaches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the theory that the 'Ri Brothers had three different fathers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And His Mama Cries

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Middleland
> 
> Middleland is a livejournal landcom for Tolkien Fans and Round 2 just started, so there is really no excuse not to join! [Read the contract here](http://middleland.livejournal.com/331.html).  
> And then pick a team and [sign up here](http://middleland.livejournal.com/707.html).

Dori doesn’t remember his own father at all. He was too young when he fell in battle. He doesn’t remember the way his mother grieved over him. He was too young to understand. He asked his mother about him when he was older and she told him beautiful stories about him. He was a good dwarf, brave and strong. He kept his beard neat and his heart pure, is what his mother used to say and Dori tries to honor his father by doing the same.

Nori’s father he remembers. The memory is a bit fuzzy around the edges, but he clearly recalls the day he saw him the first time. A shadow fell onto the entire room as he stepped through the door for he was almost as wide as he was tall. A muscular fella, intimidating at first, but with a good heart. He brings gifts, toys for Dori, Nori and jewellery for their mother when he returns from where ever he goes when he is away for weeks at a time. 

He loves Dori as if he is his own and he adores Nori. 

One day, though, he leaves and never comes back. 

When he closes his eyes, Dori can still see the way his mother wasted away from waiting for him to return for months and months. The once beautiful woman, full of life and laughter grew thin and pale. She hardly did anything but sit by the window every day, crying and waiting for his return. 

A small family doesn’t need much, but money is tight and often it is left to Dori to do everything his mother isn’t capable of doing, just to keep them above water. He goes to the market to see if there is some leftover food that he can get at a discount, he cleans the house and takes care of his brother.

 

It is years after they saw Nori’s father for the last time that their mother puts on a nice dress again. She trimms her beard and braids her hair and asks her boys if she looked pretty enough to get herself one of the minders from the Iron Hills who are travelling through town, looking to find dwarves willing to work in their mines for good money.

“Yes,” both boys say in unison and that is how they got Ori.

Admittedly, Dori isn’t a fan at first, but Ori kind of grew on him. His father decides to stick around and stay with the family. Due to his expertise in mining he is hired to oversee a mine in the Hills of Evendium. A job that pays well and doesn’t require a lot of hard labour, leaving him with plenty of money and time to spend on drink and mischief.  
Dori dreads the times, when Ori’s father comes home late, because it means that he had been drinking with his companions and there is just no way to predict what will happen next. 

Sometimes he is cheerful and ignores the boys in favour of covering their mother in kisses and shoving her into the bedroom, but other times he is angry and anything can upset him, particularly Ori. He is a weak child, who crys a lot and is sick a lot and that irritates him the most. He often yells at their mother, that Ori is not his, because how could a child of his be so pathetic? Although, when he looks at Ori today, Dori just knows that he is the father.

One day, when Dori comes home from his training job at the forge, he can hear the screaming even before he enters. It isn’t yelling anymore it is honest screaming. It echoes from the mountains.   
He sneaks into the back door and finds Nori hiding under the table, his arms wrapped securely around their baby brother.

“What’s going on?”

“I think he is going to kill her!” Nori looks at him with wide, fearful eyes. “I think he is going to kill us next.”

Dori fights the urge to join his brother and hide with him, but he is almost an adult now. He has to take care of his family and protect them.

“Go outside,” he whispers. “Take Ori and go!”  
Dori waits until his bothers are safely out of sight before he grabs the metal poker from the fireplace. It is the first thing he learned to make and the forge and was allowed to take it home. His mother adored it, Ori’s father just snarled and said he had seen better. He grips it tightly. Angrily as he walks into the next room.

 

In the cover of darkness, they flee towards the Blue Mountains. It had always been their mother’s wish to settle there, closer to her own family, but she never got to do it.   
They don’t find any family there, but people are friendly and willing to help and slowly but surely Dori builds a home for them and a life. It is hard, but when he looks at his brothers his only regret is that he didn’t have the courage to get them and their mother out sooner.


End file.
